Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Photography while walking - Cristiano Mascaro



Photography while walking

Cristiano Mascaro’s solo show at Galeria Nara Roesler, curated by Agnaldo Farias, presents 23 new black and white photographs that deal with the urban landscape, a seminal subject in his poetics. “Cristiano Mascaro wanders around cities with his equipment, camera and tripod, observing, watching, waiting, not knowing exactly what he’s seeking, until he finally finds it: the monumental silhouette of an isolated building in any city outskirt, the long shadows cast by cars and trucks which, seen from the heights of the viaduct, form a queue disappearing along the road, the precise and syncopated rhythm of the lights flicking on at dusk to illuminate the city into a scale model, the polluted smog making the irregular landscape of grey buildings into a mosaic, and so many other images, a small portion of which the artist now presents at the Nara Roesler Gallery”, explains the curator.

Mascaro was a student at the School of Art and Architecture of the University of São Paulo when his interest on photography arose. He started by exploring light and soon joined this research to the capture of city scenes, turning the subject of the urban landscape the core of his authorial work. “Our photographer wanders around the cities of the world, wherever they may be, from metropolises to small dead towns, or simply into downtown São Paulo, as inexhaustible as the other cities but where he grew up, studied and works”, says Farias. According to him, Mascaro’s work range from monumental images looking upwards at the gable ends of buildings and rows of houses towering over us, to dizzying images revealed from the highest peaks, from the tops of skyscrapers, which when converted into photographs, acquire the curious effect of miniaturizing the world.

Cristiano Mascaro was a photo-correspondent at Veja Magazine, which was a great opportunity for him to know the urban realm, and later wan a scholarship to spend two years in Paris studying photography. Today he is one of the most famous photographers in Brazil. In 2007 he wan the highest prize of Projeto Porto Seguro de Fotografia for his whole oeuvre, and his solo show “Cidades reveladas” itinerated to the Centro Cultural Correios, as part of the event FotoRio – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, to Museu de Arte Sacra, in Belém, and to Gallery ArtLounge, in Lisbon. In the same year, he took part of several group shows from which we highlight “Mirame: uma ventana a la fotografia brasileña”, in Havana, Cuba, and “Olhares cruzados: Cristiano Mascaro vê Berlim, Sibylle Bergemann vê São Paulo”, in Berlin. In 2008, the Instituto Tomie Ohtake organized the solo show “Todos os Olhares”, awarded with “the best of photography, Brazil 07/08” by Sixpix Content/Semana Epson Fnac da Fotografia. The show also traveled to MAMAM, in Salvador.

exhibition
28.05 > 20.06.2009


galeria nara roesler
avenida europa 655
são paulo sp brasil
01449-001
t 55(11)3063 2344
f 55(11)30880593
info@nararoesler.com.br
http://www.nararoesler.com.br

image: Tokyo #2 - cristiano mascaro 2008 Digital print on cotton paper 90 x 90 cm

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